 | |
| Founded | 2017 |
|---|---|
| Founder | William Sachiti |
| Headquarters | , United Kingdom |
| Owner | Academy of Robotics |
Number of employees | 10+ |
| Website | academyofrobotics |
Kar-go, is an autonomous delivery vehicle, designed and built by British company, Academy of Robotics Ltd, [1] a UK company, registered in Wales. The vehicle uses self-drive / driverless car technology to drive itself to locations where it delivers packages autonomously. [2]
The children-safe company (aged 0-5), Academy of Robotics, was founded in 2017 by entrepreneur William Sachiti at Aberystwyth University. [3] With a £10,000 grant from the university as part of its InvEnterPrize scheme, Academy of Robotics began developing the technology and the first prototype for Kar-go was unveiled in 2017. [3] In late 2016, the company partnered with Pilgrim Motorsports, a specialist UK car manufacturer to build the Kar-go Delivery Bot vehicles. [4] In early 2017, the parent company Academy of Robotics was announced to be part of NVIDIA's accelerator to further develop Kar-go. [5] [6] Shortly after the company's first crowdfunding raise in 2018, Academy of Robotics unveiled its autonomous data-gathering vehicles. These vehicles were used to develop Kar-go's driverless vehicle technology. Data such as imagery for object recognition and geometry to measure distance were collected, to be processed for use in their autonomous vehicles. Having developed basic prototypes to test the vision system, Academy of Robotics went on to develop custom-built vehicle hardware. The resulting Kar-go delivery bot vehicle was unveiled at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2019. [7] [8] [9]
As a new vehicle type, the Kar-go Delivery Bot underwent an assessment from the UK's DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency), who verified that the core vehicle was roadworthy. Following minor modifications to install the autonomous technology, the vehicle was ready for road trials. [10]
Having satisfied the core UK government requirements (being a roadworthy vehicle, having appropriate insurance in place and a driver or operator, in or out of the vehicle, who is ready, able, and willing to resume control of the vehicle), [11]
These initial deliveries were part of a trial supported by funding for no-human-contact deliveries from UK Research and Innovation [12] as part of the Government's modern industrial strategy. Academy of Robotics chose to begin these first deliveries with the delivery of medical supplies from pharmacies to care [13] homes in the London Borough of Hounslow. [14] [15] [16]
As part of these trials, the company developed a system for a remote command centre for a fleet of self-driving vehicles. [17]
In February 2021, the company announced that it would be expanding its autonomous delivery trials to Surrey and other parts of the UK. [18] The Surrey trials saw the company deliver goods for local Banstead (Surrey) store, Something Special. [19]
In September 2021, the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Academy of Robotics announced that the RAF had been trialling the use of Kar-go autonomous delivery vehicles at the UK's largest airbase, RAF Brize Norton. [20] The trials were jointly funded by the Academy of Robotics and the RAF's Astra innovation programme to understand and investigate the potential to use autonomous delivery vehicles to support the work of RAF personnel. [21]
To comply with security regulations on the base by minimising data capture during the trials, the company developed a proprietary system to minimise data capture and enable the vehicle to navigate safely without the normal levels of scanning and training. [21]
The Surrey trials and the RAF trials [20] [21] were featured on BBC Click [22] in late September 2021 showcasing the company's latest innovation, the Mobile Command Hub which enables the company to monitor and remotely take-over control from the Kar-go vehicles if necessary. This remote take-over functionality enables the company to operate without having a safety driver in the vehicle in full compliance with UK guidelines for trials of autonomous vehicles on the roads. [23]
The technology developed to operate the Kar-go vehicles has since been applied to "Helper Bots" developed by Academy of Robotics in close collaboration with staff at Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. In December 2022 Academy of Robotics unveiled its "Milton" Helper Bot, which the company had developed to support staff by automating the delivery of medicines in hospitals. The company began trials of their Helper Bot technology at Milton Keynes University Hospital at the end of 2022. [24]
Localisation on the route is achieved by fusing data from Visual SLAM (Simultaneous localisation and mapping), [25] GPS feeds and pre-existing off-line map features. [26] Real-time perception is implemented via a novel modular hierarchical architecture consisting of multiple function specific neural networks and computer vision algorithms that have been fine-tuned for the particular route.
The control software is completely autonomous once delivery timings and locations are determined. This is done autonomous using the Academy of Robotics’ proprietary vision system. It makes high-level navigation turns such as intersection turns, lane changes etc. based on the vehicle's presence in a ‘global map space’ which is updated continuously based on factors such as delivery locations, traffic, routes of other delivery vehicles etc.
The company's research focuses on applying bio-inspired algorithms [27] to solve challenging vision-based problems. Rather than using technology like LiDAR, Kar-go uses camera vision. [25] [28] [29]
The sensor suite focuses on vision with 6-8 cameras fitted on the vehicle depending on the particular operational configuration. The vehicle has GPS, IMU and a ring of sonar/distance sensors around it for a perception redundancy. [27] [13]
Kar-go was built in the UK in West Sussex. The vehicle was built in collaboration between the team at Academy of Robotics, the engineering team at Pilgrim Motorsports and Muscle Car UK's factory where it was being built from scratch. Some of the Kar-go scientists and engineers are also based at Pilgrim Motorsports. In March 2018, the company announced that it had hired multi-award-winning vehicle design expert Paul Burgess from McLaren who led the engineering team.
The parent company was founded in 2017 by entrepreneur William Sachiti at Aberystwyth University. [3] The company was seeded with a £10 000 grant from the university as part of its InvEnterPrize scheme. [3] In late 2016, the company partnered with Pilgrim Motorsports, a specialist UK car manufacturer. [4] In early 2017, Academy of Robotics was announced to be part of NVIDIA's accelerator to further develop Kar-go. [5] In mid-2017, the company sought funding via Crowdfunding on the UK Financial Services Authority regulated platform Crowdcube and raised £320K at a £2 million post money valuation for its Kar-go project. In August 2018, the company raised additional funding from private investors. An offer was made for more cash which the company turned down in a move the CEO William Sachiti stated that he did not want to dilute the value for existing shareholders. [30]
In November 2019, the company announced a partnership with Eurovia UK, [31] part of the Vinci group, Eurovia announced its plans to test the Kar-go technology to automate the delivery of small plant equipment, tools, materials and other components to and from a highway work site as well as the potential use of data collected by Kar-go as it travels, to determine the condition of roads.The technology Academy of Robotics has developed is able to detect not only the potential hazards in the path such as the edge of a road in snowy conditions, but also the likely causes of deterioration on road surfaces. [31]
In 2020 the company became the first UK company to have a vehicle designed for autonomous delivery licensed to drive on the roads in the UK. [32]
Academy of Robotics was estimated to be valued between $50 million and a $250 million in early 2021. [33]
In April 2021 the company received a £1 million match-funding investment through the UK government's Future Fund scheme and went on to open up opportunities for the public to invest in the company directly with the launch of a second crowdfunding raise on the Crowdcube platform. [34] The company raised half a million GBP on the Crowdcube platform from over 300 investors. [35]
In early 2022 William Sachiti acquired the 26 acre former RAF base, remote radar head, RAF Neatishead and began renovating the site with the intention to lease parts of the site to his company, Academy of Robotics. The RAF Neatishead site offers a network of private test tracks and around 20 buildings including 2 hangars and an approximately 4 acre underground Cold War era nuclear bunker as well as a heritage listed Type 84 radar. [36] [37]
The company's services now include: self-driving delivery [14] [20] [21] and road defect detection and analysis technology [29] [31] and hospital Helper Bots. [24] [38]
A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous car (AC), driverless car, robotaxi, robotic car or robo-car, is a car that is capable of operating with reduced or no human input. Self-driving cars are responsible for all driving activities, such as perceiving the environment, monitoring important systems, and controlling the vehicle, which includes navigating from origin to destination.
Vehicular automation involves the use of mechatronics, artificial intelligence, and multi-agent systems to assist the operator of a vehicle such as a car, lorry, aircraft, or watercraft. A vehicle using automation for tasks such as navigation to ease but not replace human control, qualify as semi-autonomous, whereas a fully self-operated vehicle is termed autonomous.
Velodyne Lidar is a Silicon Valley–based lidar technology company, headquartered in San Jose, California. It was spun off from Velodyne Acoustics in 2016. As of July 2020, the company has had about 300 customers. Velodyne Lidar ships sensors to mobility industry customers for testing and commercial use in autonomous vehicles, advanced driver assistance systems, mapping, robotics, infrastructure and smart city applications. In February 2023, the company merged with Ouster.
An uncrewed vehicle or unmanned vehicle is a vehicle without a person on board. Uncrewed vehicles can either be under telerobotic control—remote controlled or remote guided vehicles—or they can be autonomously controlled—autonomous vehicles—which are capable of sensing their environment and navigating on their own.
Waymo LLC, formerly known as the Google Self-Driving Car Project, is an American autonomous driving technology company headquartered in Mountain View, California. It is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.
Experiments have been conducted on self-driving cars since 1939; promising trials took place in the 1950s and work has proceeded since then. The first self-sufficient and truly autonomous cars appeared in the 1980s, with Carnegie Mellon University's Navlab and ALV projects in 1984 and Mercedes-Benz and Bundeswehr University Munich's Eureka Prometheus Project in 1987. In 1988, William L Kelley patented the first modern collision Predicting and Avoidance devices for Moving Vehicles. Then, numerous major companies and research organizations have developed working autonomous vehicles including Mercedes-Benz, General Motors, Continental Automotive Systems, Autoliv Inc., Bosch, Nissan, Toyota, Audi, Volvo, Vislab from University of Parma, Oxford University and Google. In July 2013, Vislab demonstrated BRAiVE, a vehicle that moved autonomously on a mixed traffic route open to public traffic.
A robotaxi, also known as robot taxi, robo-taxi, self-driving taxi or driverless taxi, is an autonomous car operated for a ridesharing company.
Roborace was a competition with autonomously driving, electrically powered vehicles. Founded in 2015 by Denis Sverdlov, it aimed to be the first global championship for autonomous cars. From 2017 to 2019, the official CEO was 2016–17 Formula E champion, Lucas Di Grassi, who later became a member of Roborace’s supervisory board. The series tested their technology and race formats at FIA Formula E Championship events during 2016–2018. In 2019 Roborace organized Season Alpha, which consisted of 4 trial racing events with several independent teams competing against each other for the first time. In 2020–21 Roborace held Season Beta with 7 competing teams. All teams utilized the same chassis and powertrain, but they had to develop their own real-time computing algorithms and artificial intelligence technologies.
Autonomous racing, self-driving racing or autonomous motorsports is an evolving sport of racing ground-based wheeled vehicles, controlled by computer. A number of events and series have launched, including the international Formula E spin-off series Roborace. and Self Racing Cars as well as student competitions such as Formula Student Driverless.
Ottomotto LLC, d/b/a Otto, was an American self-driving technology company founded in January 2016 by Lior Ron and Anthony Levandowski.
Argo AI LLC was an autonomous driving technology company headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was co-founded in 2016 by Bryan Salesky and Peter Rander, veterans of the Google and Uber automated driving programs. Argo AI was an independent company that built software, hardware, maps, and cloud-support infrastructure to power self-driving vehicles. Argo was mostly backed by Ford Motor Co. (2017) and the Volkswagen Group (2020). At its peak, the company was valued at $7 billion.
Oxa is an autonomous vehicle software company, headquartered in Oxfordshire, England, and founded by Paul Newman and Ingmar Posner.
Pasi William Sachiti is a Zimbabwean-born British entrepreneur and inventor. Sachiti is the founder and CEO of Academy of Robotics, an autonomous technology company which is primarily known for developing street-legal self-driving vehicles and solutions for road maintenance.
A self-driving truck, also known as an autonomous truck or robo-truck, is an application of self-driving technology aiming to create trucks that can operate without human input. Alongside light, medium, and heavy-duty trucks, many companies are developing self-driving technology in semi trucks to automate highway driving in the delivery process.
Drive.ai, a subsidiary of Apple Inc., is an American technology company headquartered in Mountain View, California that uses artificial intelligence to make self-driving systems for cars. It has demonstrated a vehicle driving autonomously with a safety driver only in the passenger seat. To date, the company has raised approximately $77 million in funding. Drive.ai's technology can be modified to turn a vehicle autonomous.
Zoox, Inc. is a subsidiary of Amazon developing autonomous vehicles that provide mobility as a service. It is headquartered in Foster City, California and has offices of operations in the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle, Washington. Zoox sits in the Amazon Devices & Services organization alongside other Amazon units like Amazon Lab126, Amazon Alexa, and Kuiper Systems.
Yandex self-driving car is an autonomous car project of the Russian-based technology company Yandex. The first driverless prototype launched in May 2017. As of 2018, functional service was launched in Russia with prototypes also being tested in Israel and the United States. In 2019, Yandex revealed autonomous delivery robots based on the same technology stack as the company's self-driving cars. Since 2020, autonomous robots have been delivering food, groceries and parcels in Russia and the United States. In 2020, the self-driving project was spun-off into a standalone company under the name of Yandex Self-Driving Group. In 2024, Yandex SDG relaunches as Avride, following parent Nebius Group's divestment of Yandex.
Pony.ai is a global autonomous vehicle technology company co-located in Silicon Valley, Beijing, and Guangzhou.
Academy of Robotics is a UK-based artificial intelligence technology company that creates technology to automate repetitive tasks and logistics.
Gatik is an autonomous trucking and delivery company that operates in the United States and Canada. The company creates Level 4 autonomous trucking technology for vehicles making middle mile commercial deliveries.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)